After more than a year, the missing barbed tool used by a dentist in a root canal surgery was finally found, in the patient’s stomach.
Two years ago, Chicago-area resident Janus Pawlowicz went to his long-time dentist for routine dental surgery, later the dentist told him he cannot find the barbed tool she is using in the operation.
Pawlowicz said when she couldn’t find it, the dentist sent him home without giving an advice about what may happen.
Few days later, Pawlowicz’s stomach began hurting, and he started feeling bad. He went to his doctor, who ordered an X-ray. It was found out that nearly 2-inch-long barbed broach, a razor-sharp metal file used during root canals, was lodged in the middle of Pawlowicz’s stomach.
Pawlowicz filed a medical negligence lawsuit against the dentist, Beata Kozar-Warchalowska at Gentle Dental Services in October 2014. This week, the lawsuit was settled for $675,000.
Charges was filed almost two years ago in Cook County Circuit Court. He claimed that Pawlowicz’s injury could have been easily prevented. His attorney, Rob Kohen, said that the dentist failed to use a rubber dental dam, which is supposed to cover the entire mouth during a procedure and expose only the part that a dentist is treating.
“The standard required is that this dentist use a dental dam that costs next to nothing,” Kohen said. “She didn’t use that. At that time, my client doesn’t know that.”
Kohen said he doesn’t know if Kozar-Warchalowska realized she had dropped the tool into her patient’s throat and didn’t tell him.
Kohen said his client underwent an emergency surgery after the tool was discovered, and a second surgery shortly after. His medical costs, Kohen said, was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“I was kind of shocked,” Kohen said. “I hear a lot of stories in this practice. It’s rare that you hear a dental tool dropped into somebody’s throat like that.”
The incident left not only scars from the surgeries but also permanent injuries to Pawlowicz’s stomach. He can no longer eat certain types of food because they would upset his stomach.